Tony Blair sorry for Iraq war 'mistakes' and admits conflict played role in rise of Isis
The former UK prime minister used a US television interview – due to be broadcast by CNN Europe on Sunday – to express regret over the failure to plan properly for the aftermath of the toppling in 2003 of Saddam Hussein and the false intelligence used to justify it.
“I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” he told CNN. “I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”
Analysis There is no doubt about it: Tony Blair was on the warpath from early 2002
Colin Powell’s memo confirms what is broadly known, but will add to pressure on Chilcot inquiry to clear up controversy over PM in run up to invasion of Iraq
Asked by host Fareed Zakaria if the Iraq war was “the principal cause” of the rise of Islamic State, he was reported by the Mail on Sunday to have conceded: “I think there are elements of truth in that.”
He added: “Of course you can’t say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.”
How could Tony Blair have been so wrong about Mr. Curveball?
“He went on to say in 2009, Iraq was relatively more stable. What then happened was a combination of two things: there was a sectarian policy pursued by the government of Iraq, which were mistaken policies.
“But also when the Arab spring began, Isis moved from Iraq into Syria, built themselves from Syria and then came back into Iraq."
No date has yet been given for the release of the final conclusions, more than six years after the inquiry was set up by then prime minister Gordon Brown with an assurance it would take a year.
The inexplicable delay in releasing the Chilcot inquiry's findings has become a scandal in itself.
Blair's admission also comes on the heels of the revelation the Blair and Bush had been secretly planing the attack on Iraq one year before their invasion.
Smoking gun emails reveal 'deal in blood' George Bush and Tony Blair made as they secretly plotted the Iraq War behind closed doors a YEAR before the invasion
By William Lowther In Washington and Glen Owen
The damning memo, from secretary of state Colin Powell to president George Bush, was written on March 28, 2002, a week before Bush’s famous summit with Blair at his Crawford ranch in Texas.
The Powell document, headed ‘Secret... Memorandum for the President’, lifts the lid on how Blair and Bush secretly plotted the war behind closed doors at Crawford.
In it, Powell tells Bush that Blair ‘will be with us’ on military action. Powell assures the president: ‘The UK will follow our lead’.
The classified document also discloses that Blair agreed to act as a glorified spin doctor for the president by presenting ‘public affairs lines’ to convince a skeptical public that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction - when none existed.
Hillary's E- Mails Do Bear Fruit: 'Tony Blair Iraq War Cheerleader'
Blair concludes the Zakaria interview with something that is completely beside the point.
"It's not clear to me that even if our policies didn't work, subsequent policies have worked better."
Tony you and George's successors had to deal with the sectarian house of cards for an iraqi government that your good buddy Dybya left behind. A government that didn't include safeguards for the Sunni minority, and took on the role of Shia occupiers in Sunni areas.
What about George W. Bush, who so liked to call himself a “war president”?
He would rather not talk about that war, or the region it destabilized, and is now embroiled in conflict.